


Minnie

by skylinesunflowers



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cats, Christmas, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Homesickness, Letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26550088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylinesunflowers/pseuds/skylinesunflowers
Summary: Dominique receives Christmas letters at her apartment.
Kudos: 3





	Minnie

Dominique found ten letters on her windowsill on Christmas Eve after work, all addressed to Dom, Minnie, and Dominique Weasley respectively. She scanned them one by one, discerning which ones she’d go through tomorrow morning.

The lights were off in her apartment, all except for the measly few she’d strung up on a sickly-looking tree. Every time Bessie swung at it, pine needles fell to the floor. Poor thing. The tree, not her heathen of a cat.

Grandma Molly, who Dad had just taught to use basic technology, had sent a few pictures taken at their yearly Christmas gathering. Rosy-cheeked and still in their pajamas, her brother and cousins gathered around the table. Victoire and Teddy’s absence was one to be noted, but she wouldn’t bring it up.

Molly and Roxanne didn’t look too bad. Roxy had taken her hair out of cornrows since last summer, and Molls was growing her own out. They looked older. Dominique missed them. They’d love France, the sheltered feeling of weekends and holidays she spent at the restaurant outside St. Paul’s cathedral.

She missed Maman, too, in her own way. While it was a relief to be away from her constant nagging and emotional outbursts over Victoire, she missed the feeling of a motherly figure in the next room.

Louis was looking good. He was always a wiry, little thing, and his skinny arms looked a bit comical sticking out of his _I.T._ t-shirt. Why his sudden fascination with horror had come up, she didn’t understand.

The other cousins, she skimmed over quickly. All of them looked fine. Lucy was half-grinning, and she looked nice with her hair cropped to the shoulders. James looked pleased with himself, and Lily, Fred, and Albus were all right, too. Rose and Hugo were in the next picture, the former looking disgruntled.

Dominique yanked on her dirty blonde ponytail and let her hair spill out. She flicked the television on with a yawn, and _Golden Girls_ appeared on Channel 8. Fine, whatever. She could watch an American sitcom about old people on Christmas Eve.

She frowned at the letters on the couch beside her. Curiosity overcame Dominique, and she put the envelopes in her blanket-covered lap, tearing open Roxanne’s first.

Her cousins wrote to her about school, grades, and Quidditch. Puddlemore United was up by thirty points this season. Roxanne mentioned Lily, who hadn’t exactly adjusted to life at Hogwarts yet. Her thoughts were with the poor girl, as Dominique remembered how frightened Victoire had been her first year. Dom wasn’t frightened. She didn’t think she’d been, anyway.

She undid Maman and Dad’s letters last. It was heavier than the rest, and out slid a Minnie Mouse keychain into her lap. Dominique grinned.

 _Dearest Minnie,_ it read.

Dominique turned down the volume of the television and patted the sofa beside her. Bessie climbed up and curled into a ball by her feet.

 _It’s Dad. Maman’s enclosed another letter, and I hope you’ll read it. She misses you very much, you know._ Yeah, that was debatable.

 _Roxanne and Molly found the keychain in a Muggle gift store. They asked me to send it with my letter, instead of separately in one of theirs. Roxy asks if you please won’t wear a polka-dotted bow like this Minnie._ Fat chance. Dominique traced the steel edges of the mouse’s bow. Cute on her, but not on Dom.

 _I hope you have a good Christmas in France. Though I don’t know what you upper-class folk do for holidays._ Sat around and watched _Golden Girls_ in ratty pajamas. _I miss you, Dom, I do. So do your Maman and your brother._

A lump rose in Dominique’s throat. She wanted to go back, but it simply wasn’t possible. Not when she had a day job at the Louvre and attended night school at a prestigious Wizarding art school. She’d fought Dad so hard to go here; she couldn’t go back until she’d finished school.

_Anyways, Dom, I’ve enclosed my email address. Hermione thinks it’s good to get with the times. I miss you, and I can’t wait to see you soon. Love, Dad._

Yeah, she loved him, too. Dominique felt around for Maman’s letter. Maybe she’d read it tomorrow or something. Definitely ‘or something’.

Dominique scratched Bessie behind the ears and turned the television’s volume back up. A laugh track rang out in the comfortable silence of her assortment.

The kids were probably all in bed now, and Roxy and Molly were whispering. She used to be a part of their whispering, their late-night jokes and laughs. Mum and Dad were at the dining table, maybe discussing the war, or just politics. Wasn’t some sort of election coming up?

Maman’s pale face, her icy beauty, came to mind, perched beside Dad on the edge of her stool. Was she thinking about Vic, or Dom, or Louis? Did she miss her children? Did she miss Dominique?

Here’s hoping, she guessed. Maman didn’t know how much she missed her. How much she wished she was more, sometimes.

Christmas wasn’t a time for sorrow, though, so Dominique packed up her thoughts and ran her fingers over the keychain. She never used to care so damn much.

With a huff, Dominique slid Maman’s letter out of the envelope and began to read.


End file.
